Birchrun Hill Farms

A sucessful Kickstarter campaign for the family- run farm

Community Partner

Birchrun Hills Farm is a family run dairy farm in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania. Sue and Ken Miller began dairy farming over 25 years ago and continue today with the help of their two sons, Randy and Jesse. The Millers started out as a dairy farm selling their milk to local markets and to the Land O’ Lakes Corporation. About 10 years ago, Sue realized that in these unstable economic times, the Millers needed a specialty that would sustain their farm and set them apart from their competition. They needed to add value to their milk and decided to learn the craft of raw cheese making.

CHALLENGE

Sue Miller, owner and cheese maker on the farm asked Beautiful Social if we could help make her Kickstarter campaign a success. Sue requested that we produce a Kickstarter video to raise money to outfit a “cheese cave” on the Birchrun Hills Farm property. In the farm’s current state, the milk is produced on the premises but then needs to be transported three miles away to a different facility where the cheese can actually be made. It had become inconvenient for Birchrun Hills Farm and prevented the growth and expansion of the cheese production. (Her cheese is really in demand!) The mission of our Kickstarter was to reach $25,000 to go towards the cave. This cave would save Sue the time and hassle of driving back and forth from the facility they rent to the farm, giving Sue more space to store more cheese and increase production while also providing her an opportunity to create new cheeses.

ROLE

The Millers invited us to the farm to film her land and the cows. We interviewed each member of the family with a rustic haystack backdrop. We also visited the current (and cramped) cheese making facility. In the following weeks we also interviewed some of Sues’ patrons at DiBruno Brothers and Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market.

The next step was editing. We managed to collect eight hours worth of footage that had to be sorted through and cut down to under five minutes. We worked tirelessly and were able to produce a four minute and fifty five second video, through numerous rounds of edits. (We even had drone footage of the farm!) We finished the video as Birchrun Hills Farm launched the Kickstarter Campaign.

RESULT

Throughout the semester we were in contact with Birchrun Hills Farm, strategizing about the campaign. We researched successfully funded Kickstarter campaigns and devised tactics and reward incentives that would help Birchrun Hills Farm reach their goals. On December 3, 2014 Birchrun Hills Farm reached its goal of $25,000, and ended up raising a grand total of $33,507 with 235 backers.